FRINGILLIDM— CROSSBILL. 125 



green" plumage at Epping on March 9th, 1833. He ad Is : "It is the only 

 one I ever saw here, and was evidently a very old bird from the toughness of the 

 fibres, &c. Later, he says, (10) "A small number of Crossbills came here about 

 the middle of August [1835], but remained only a few days. I shotthree or four, 

 and have one alive." Writing on Nov. 7th, 1838, he says (10) : 



" About the middle of July we were visited by hundreds of Crossbills, but at 

 that time the plumage was so bad they were not worth preserving. Many of them 

 were nestlings. Some yet remain, and I killed four very fine ones in our garden 

 a few days since. I have taken infinite pains to ascertain the changes of plumage 

 and have sent a long history to Yarrell. One thing is certain : that some young 

 males at least become y^/^w at the first autumnal moult. Two males I killed a 

 few days since, one is bright clear yellow, the other fine light red. A bird I 

 have alive has just moulted. He was very red : now he is quite yellow. They 

 are very puzzling." 



In June, 1839, he writes (10) : 



" I have shot several very fine Crossbills this spring, and obtained a nest and 

 six eggs from a tall fir-tree in Lord Frankfort's plantations close to our town. The 

 nest very closely resembles the Greenfinch's, but has twigs of larch interwoven 

 with the outer rim. The eggs also strikingly resemble those of the Greenfinch, 

 but are rather larger. Hewitson's figure is very bad. I should hardly think it 

 was a Crossbill's egg from which it was taken." 



On Sept. 20th, he says " a few Crossbills occasionally pass over here. I shot 

 three in our garden a day or two since." On Jan. iSth, 1840, he writes (lo) : 

 " The Crossbills seem to have quite left." Again in the following March he says 



" 1 believe the Crossbills have entirely quitted England. They remained here 

 just a year. I saw the first in June, 1838, and they were numerous till May, 

 1839, and a few remained through June, since which time I have not heard or 

 seen one at liberty, nor can I hear of any one who has. I have a pair alive, and 

 always in fine weather hang one out in the garden, and, did any pass over, he 

 would be sure to call them. Last autumn [?] they were daily in the garden, 

 and I shot many very fine ones. * * * It is very singular they should arrive in 

 such multitudes and all at once disappear. It cannot be want of food, as that is 

 plentiful enough." 



However, on May 3rd, 1840, he says (10) : 



" On Tuesday last, as I was walking in our garden, I was surprised to hear the 

 call of the Crossbill, not having heard or seen one for nearly a year. I soon saw 

 five of them flying over, and wanting a pair of them for a friend, I shot at them 

 and killed a male and a female. I regretted afterwards that I did so, as the 

 female was evidently sitting, from the state of her breast." 



Again, on Mar. 25th, 1841, Doubleday says : " I shot a single female Cross- 

 bill last Saturday. I have not seen one before for months." 



King, writing about 1840, of the district around Sudbury, describes it (20) as 

 " Rare : an occasional visitant." A male, entirely of a " dark brick-red," was 

 shot in Feb., 1862, near Walton-on-the-Naze (Bree — 23. 8033). At Harwich, it 

 is occasionally seen during severe winters (Kerry). Mr. Stacey of Dunmow 

 preserved a pair shot near thereabout the year 1881, and Mr. Offin shot several at 

 Rayleigh the same year. Mr. Fitch has once seen it at Maldon. Mr. Bu.xton says 

 (47. 87) a pair " nested in some firs at the Bower, close by Epping Railway Station." 

 He refers to Doubleday's nest, mentioned above. Mr. Scruby preserved a speci- 

 men (the only one he ever received), shot a few years back by a keeper in Ongar 

 Park Wood. " W " of Romford, states that (ig. 9) "several arrive annually in the 

 plantations at Whitley, in the parish of Birdbrook," from which it seems likely 

 that they bred there in 1838. 



